Campaign Action
Republicans had a lot to say about how President Barack Obama was weakening American alliances and alienating friends. Now that Donald Trump is actually weakening American alliances and alienating friends, the Republican silence is especially deafening.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell talked about Obama’s years as “a serial degrading of our alliances and partnerships all across the globe.” Now, as France is saying “International cooperation can’t depend on anger and small words” and Germany is saying “In a matter of seconds, you can destroy trust with 280 Twitter characters. To build that up again will take much longer,” McConnell has not so much to say.
Paul Ryan, then the Republican nominee for vice president, railed against “leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us.” Now the House speaker, Ryan denies there's evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and is silent on Trump’s destruction of relationships with allies.
One Republican senator did address Trump and the G-7, though. Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy downplayed it as being like “a fight with your spouse.” Can someone please ask Cassidy what he would think if one of his friends grudgingly came to an agreement with their spouse and then left and started tweeting insults about the spouse for the world to see? Would that seem like either a healthy marriage or a good way to repair it?
Republicans own Donald Trump. They enable him, they suck up to him, they give him what they wants—and they own him. No pretending they’re somehow separate from him or above his destructive behavior.